Storytelling In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

Great Essays
Storytelling is an artform that has been around for hundreds of generations, and that has spanned through countless cultures. These stories are passed around to tell family backgrounds, religious origins, or just as a way to enjoy one’s self. Bedtime stories, true stories, myths-the number of ways and forms that stories exist in are countless. In the age of technology, storytelling has become less common. But, no matter how much time passes in human history, the art of storytelling will not die. Even nowadays, a kid’s grandfather or great-grandfather will sit around a fireplace and tell these young ones stories from their time, during wars and peace and the Depression and other times of their lives. Tim O’Brien’s novel, The Things They Carried …show more content…
The soldiers within the war were put on missions that they did not prefer to go on, such as removing enemy tunnels. One of these missions that was hated, although they were expected to go on, was flashbacked to within a story told by Sanders about these soldiers who were camped out on a hill. They couldn’t make a noise, and they although they wanted to go talk and relieve the tension, they were under strict rules. So, they did this: “They get on the radio and report enemy movement… All night long, they just smoke those mountains… Around dawn, things finally get quiet… and the mountains are absolutely dead-flat silent. (71-72, O’Brien)” The stress of being forced to shut up pushed them to wasting an entire airstrike against an empty area, and when questioned about it, they do exactly what they were told to do: shut up. Another flashback via story was about Fossie’s girlfriend, as he snuck her into the battlefield. It wasn’t regulation, and nobody believed that a person would be insane enough to attempt sneaking his honey into the fight. “ ‘It can’t happen,’ Sanders said… ‘I saw it, man. I was right there. This guy did it.’ (86, O’Brien)” O’Brien showcases the fact that people will do anything to get what they want out of a situation, even if it means going around regulations, rules, …show more content…
Stories come from everywhere, and war is no exception. But there is a large difference between the stories a person hears, and the actual experience of war. A person can try to imagine what war is like, and what hell that soldiers may have gone through, but they can’t know what it is like until they actually enter the battlefield. For a person who isn’t battle-ready, O’Brien’s novel is a very powerful description of what war could be like. The imagery within the novel is astounding, showcasing these soldier’s thoughts and insecurities. Flashbacks and metaphors are used to a large extent, illuminating the ongoing internal battle between desires and patriotism. The heavy use of repetition goes the extra mile in revealing the worldly desire for a happy ending, even when it just doesn’t exist. All in all, this intelligent novel is largely about what a good ending really is. Many of the soldiers make it out alive from the war, so is it not a good ending for them? The fungibility between two different “good” endings is largely based on the point of view of an individual. Good endings exist everywhere. Humanity just has to look for them, and be happy, knowing that the ending always could be

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Author and Vietnam War veteran, Tim O’Brien, in his fictional novel “The Things They Carried” ties together his real experience from being in the Vietnam War with a fictional twist on all his stories throughout the novel. The stories complexity allows O’Brien to emphasizes the difference between “storytelling truth” versus “happening truth”. O’Brien uses rhetoric devices such as repetition and metaphors and diction to highlight the effect storytelling has on a reader’s emotions such as grief. O’Brien also emphasizes the fact that stories allow for the diseased to keep living through their own chronicle memories, which gives his novel a purpose: to aid readers through their own grief by sharing the stories of these Vietnam war soldiers. In…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Human Rather Than a Character The first thing that comes to mind while thinking about a soldier is a man wearing clean uniform with glittering gold badges. This man is courageous, fearless; he can run through mud while it’s raining, go into dark tunnels without having any fear. From this hypothetical soldier’s face, it can be understood that he is proud of serving his country and protecting the weak. This man who would do anything to save his compatriots, fights dauntlessly in the war zone, when all he can think about is his beloved wife and kids.…

    • 1355 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien breaks down the border between fact and fiction as he articulates a credible collection of war stories. O’Brien takes the unique role in the novel as an imaginary character created from a blend of real and fabricated elements, but he still makes sure to elucidate that the novel is merely a work of his imagination. Nevertheless, this style of autobiographical fiction forces readers to question the fictional nature of the novel. O’Brien himself understands the blurred line separating fact from fiction, and he discusses the complex relationship between the two in his storytelling.…

    • 1192 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Synthesis Essay The novel “The Things They Carried” written by Tim O’Brien is a simple yet intriguing story about the items a troop of soldiers carried while stationed in Vietnam. Tim O’brien makes sure the story circles and centers around the horrible conditions of Vietnam. He also puts a voice in his writing so it seems like this topic was very difficult to write about. Throughout the story, O’brien seems to gain trust and courage in his writing and in his audience of young adults.. “The Things They Carried” describes the Vietnam experience and focuses on and prepares O’brien to discuss emotional issues and not just physical or environmental.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    War changes people. The Vietnam war changed many soldiers, families, and countries who were affected. This war was different from the other wars we had fought in the past. It was long and, it lasted years longer than they had expected. The war became increasingly unpopular at home in the United States.…

    • 1371 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Vietnam War was a violent and brutal conflict that got the lives of thousands of Americans and sent thousands home either wounded physically or wounded emotionally by the cruelty they had to witness. No amount of training could prepare these soldiers for what they had to experience. Published in 1990 by Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried is regarded as a fictional work based on the personal experiences of American soldiers who encounter the horrific trauma both emotionally and psychologically of combat during the Vietnam War. The burdens the men carry with them throughout the 30-year war were unbearable and those who were lucky enough to survive the guilt and grief would stay within them forever. Tim O’Brien goes into great detail about the weight of the specific military items that the soldiers carry from place to place, but the weight of these items does not even come close to the weight of the emotional baggage that lies deeper in their hearts.…

    • 1148 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, there are many conflicts and from those conflicts, lessons are learned. We learn how there is a great power to storytelling, how the fear of shame can motivate people, and how we shouldn’t let anything hold us back, especially things that were out of our control. The biggest theme of the book is how there is an immense power to storytelling. Throughout the book, O’Brien talks about how storytelling helps bring other people into the past and share unknowable experiences with the storyteller. Another thing O’Brien talked about was how storytelling allowed the dead to come back to life.…

    • 439 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Things They Carried War is a wretched battlefield. It twists the minds of soldiers, scarring them with experiences that can last a lifetime. During war, there are some experiences that one cannot verbally formulate into words that truly capture what had happened. As the author of “The Things They Carried”, Tim O’brien writes with a style that brings his stories to life, as it allows the readers to be able to feel the situation as if them themselves were in it.…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Duty, moral, and memories—The Things They carried “War is hell”, like Tim O’Brien said, the war destroyed countless things no matter lives or moral. As an Anti-war person, the war changed his life in multiple ways. When the paradoxical choice comes, O’Brien needs someone to witness his choice, or shares his pain; war took away humanity, but O’Brien used his last…

    • 926 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Neverending War War will never end for the soldiers who are among the living, the ones who have seen the end are dead. The novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien tells what he and his fellow soldiers had experienced in the vietnam war, during and after, what they had to do and how they feel. There thought’s were not only just on the war, but on their family and friends. In the soldiers heads, they are constantly thinking of the past, mostly the war, and what they had to do. In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, shows the theme of grief and shame the soldiers experienced during the war and after the war, to them the war never ended.…

    • 1062 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This novel helps to teach about the truth that lies in war, whether or not one has experienced it firsthand themselves. This novel depicts the truth of awareness of mortality. According to O’Brien, telling stories is important because they join the past with the future and they last forever, even when someone forgets it, it’s still there. He uses the metaphor, “stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (O’Brien, 38). This states how a story is still there despite the fact that the person who told it is not.…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Storytelling has been around for generations, folk tales passed down from generation to generation. Some stories have particular truths and lies to teach lessons and or skills you might need to know in order to understand the stories. This is the same for the book The Thing They Carried. In this story the author Tim O’Brien tells about all his different stories from the vietnam war. Some of these stories are from his point of view and some are not.…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Regardless of the fact that this novel is essentially a war story, these moments are pivotal and further develop the humanity of soldiers in Vietnam. Tim O’Brien uses…

    • 1308 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Through the tough experiences, the soldiers had the courage and bravery in the war while facing the loss of their teammates. The author O’Brien explains the readers how him and his soldiers were able to manage and learn from each other. Most importantly they helped each other get through the war as one. Going into war was one of their courageous acts they faced and though many men lost their lives, they were all able to prove that they can finish the war together. In conclusion, Tim O’Brien brings the attention that telling a war story is not just about war but the memories you gathered during the experience in the…

    • 805 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Soldiers felt forced to participate in the war to avoid the shame and embarrassment from friends, family, and others familiar with them. They each are embarrassed for different reasons. One isn’t brave enough, while one isn’t smart enough. One isn’t tough enough, while one isn’t satisfied enough. O’Brien demonstrates that he is able to tell his story, twenty years later, due to the fact that he realized that facing one’s fears may be difficult, but it dissolve the shame that is felt before it.…

    • 1404 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays